Month: April 2021

Justin Bieber recently found himself at a Los Angeles elementary school where he provided a pretty great experience for the students. In collaboration with Baby2Baby and Amazon’s welcome-back event, which also featured an appearance from Kelly Rowland, Bieber performed tracks from his two most recent albums, Changes and Justice, for the youngsters enrolled at MacArthur Park Visual and Performing Arts Elementary.

The singer’s set included renditions of “Intentions,” “Holy,” and more. Rowland took to Instagram to thank Amazon for helping Baby2Baby, a group she’s an ambassador and board member for, providing backpacks filled with hygiene items, face masks, hand sanitizer and school supplies as well as food, diapers, clothing and more.

The performance comes less than a week after Bieber surprised fans with his Freedom EP on Easter Sunday. The singer’s videographer Rory Kramer revealed that the project came together fairly quickly in a post to Instagram, saying it “was insane to witness the creation of this project in its entirety. created from Thursday to Saturday and put out today.”

Its release came after Bieber became the first solo male artist to debut an album and song at No. 1 during the same week after his Giveon and Daniel Caesar-assisted “Peaches” and his sixth album, Justice topped their respective charts.

You can watch clips of Bieber’s elementary school performance above.

Golfing: It’s frustrating! Anyone who has ever done any golfing of any kind — playing 18, mini golf, Mario Golf, you name it — knows that there is a very specific kind of hell that comes from being unhappy with something that you just did. The latest example of this came on Friday afternoon at The Masters, when Si Woo Kim accidentally broke his putter out of frustration.

Kim three-putted on the 14th hole at Augusta, and as a result, he smashed his putter on the ground. The problems were plentiful, we’ll get to them momentarily.

As you can see in the above tweet, Kim picked an absolutely horrific time to do this for a few reasons: He’s not too far off of the lead and there’s still four more holes to play before he closes out the round. Because you cannot carry any extra clubs in your bag, Kim had to get creative and turn to his trusty 3-wood when he got to the green.

He must have some level of comfort with this, because on each of the next two holes, he two-putted and picked up back-to-back pars.

Here’s to hoping that Kim closes out the day strong, credits his unique situation for that, and decides to putt with his 3-wood for the remainder of the tournament en route to winning The Masters.

As the world reacts to the passing of DMX, who died at the age of 50 on Friday after reportedly being hospitalized for a drug overdose a week earlier, social media has been celebrating the rapper’s life. This has included tributes to his impact on the music world, of course, but also the personality quirks that always made for a memorable interaction. One of those moments resurfaced on Twitter thanks to a 2017 clip from First We Feast where Gabrielle Union reminisces about shooting Cradle 2 the Grave in the early 2000s. In the film, she plays a diamond thief who works for DMX’s character, who finds himself in the crosshairs of martial artist Jet Li.

It was during Union’s time on set that she learned DMX is a huge Golden Girls fan. According to the actress, there was an incident where the rapper’s dog bit a production assistant. After that, the crew was afraid to go to his trailer, so Union, who’s a dog person, volunteered to do the job, and that’s when she found out about DMX’s love of watching the sassy seniors.

Doing her best DMX voice despite eating spicy wings with host Sean Evans, Union tried to capture the first thing DMX said to her when she entered his trailer. “Yo, have a drink! Watch the Golden Girls! This shit is funny.” After that, watching the classic sitcom together became a regular occurrence. “We would have a Heineken and, sometimes, a little Crown, and watch the Golden Girls,” Union said. “And he would laugh hysterically.”

You can watch Gabrielle Union reveal DMX’s love of the Golden Girls below:

(Via First We Feast on Twitter)

If we’re picking a replacement for Alex Trebek as host of Jeopardy! on enthusiasm alone, Aaron Rodgers might have a busy schedule in the next few years. The Green Bay Packers quarterback is serious about pulling double duty as an All-Pro and host of the most popular trivia show in history, and through a few days of his guest hosting duties it’s clear he’s having the time of his life.

Rodgers has been enthusiastic about his time on Jeopardy!, especially on Twitter. He’s tweeted about the show all week, excitedly pumping up each day’s episode in a way few of the other guest hosts — or legendary host Alex Trebek — ever have on social media. Here, for example, is a “pregame” video that showed how Rodgers gets ready for the show that he was excited to share on his account as well.

He’s spoken at length about how he prepared for the job and how seriously he’s taking the opportunity. And on Thursday, he also shared a video that the show made of his interesting connection with one of the show’s contestants. As it turns out, both the Green By Packers quarterback and contestant Pasquale, a financial services consultant, have a connection to Vince Lombardi.

Funny enough, the bigger buzz from the last few days is that the contestant bears a surprisingly striking resemblance to actor and comedian Horatio Sanz. Many people pointed that out online in addition to Rodgers enjoying the football connection he made with a guest.

Many even thought that Pasquale sounded like Sanz, too. And that buzz got to the actor himself by Thursday night. Sanz celebrated Pasquale’s big win on Thursday, retweeting a photo comparison of the former SNL standout and the new Jeopardy! champion.

In other words, the vibes are definitely good on Jeopardy! these days, which is a nice change of pace from the Dr. Oz era of the show and the sorrow that’s come with the battles Trebek had with disease and his death last year. If Rogers can keep this up, maybe he’s the man for the job after all.

Ted Cruz has finally fired back after getting dragged by John Boehner for the better part of the week. The former Speaker of the House has been promoting his upcoming book, On The House: A Washington Memoir, which includes a passage that specifically rips Cruz along with the batch of Tea Party Republicans who flooded Congress in 2010. In a new preview for CBS Sunday Morning, Boehner continues to carpet bomb Cruz after being asked about “political terrorists” in the GOP by anchor John Dickerson. After taking a moment to share his disdain for Jim Jordan, Boehner returned to the never-ending object of his scorn. Via Mediaite:

As for Cruz, Boehner rather bluntly says, “I don’t beat anybody up. It’s not really my style. Except that jerk.”

“Perfect symbol, you know, of getting elected, make a lot of noise, draw a lot of attention to yourself, raise a lot of money, which means you’re gonna go make more noise, raise more money, and it’s really — it’s unfortunate,” he adds.

After seeing the CBS Sunday Morning clip, Cruz attempted to fire back at Boehner with an oddly worded response: “The Swamp is unhappy. I wear with pride his drunken, bloviated scorn. Please don’t cry.” Wow, Ted, way to really… stick it to him?

Unlike Cruz and his weird tweet, Boehner has practically turned dunking on Cruz into an art form. Axios’ Jonathan Swan recently revealed that during the taping of the audiobook for Boehner’s memoir, the former Speaker would randomly fire off expletives at Cruz. At one point, Boehner wrapped up a passage by adding, “P.S. Ted Cruz: Go f*ck yourself.” You never know when he’s going to strike next. Hopefully soon, though. This is all very funny.

(Via Ted Cruz on Twitter)

To the victor go the spoils, and on Friday afternoon, the Los Angeles Dodgers got their rings for winning the 2020 World Series. The Dodgers played host to the Washington Nationals for the first game in front of fans at Dodgers Stadium in 18 months, making it the perfect occasion to celebrate the team’s win last year.

Amid the festivities, someone who never played for the Dodgers got a moment to shine. Bronson Arroyo — who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, and Arizona Diamondbacks in an extremely respectable 16-year career — grabbed his trusty guitar and offered up a tribute to Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler. It involved him getting extremely, uncomfortably close to a camera, a background that had the sun shining through some trees, and of course, a cover of “Wonderwall” by Oasis. It rules.

And now, an attempt at trying to figure out exactly what is going on here. Buehler, a native of Kentucky, grew up a Reds fan, and has spoken in the past about how he really loved watching Arroyo pitch.

“Yeah, I was a huge Reds fan growing up. [Aaron] Harang and Bronson Arroyo and [Johnny] Cueto,” Buehler once told the Cincinnati Enquirer about pitchers he emulated growing up. “My grandfather was from Detroit, so we were big Justin Verlander fans as well. Seeing some kind of stuff – the way him and I throw – I think that’s probably the most similar mechanically to me. You know I’ve kind of taken things from all of those guys.”

Folks who remember Arroyo’s pitching days might recall that he was also quite the musician, once releasing an album called Covering the Bases that featured this very respectable cover of “Everlong” by Foo Fighters. He has also done live shows where he has covered “Wonderwall,” and truthfully, he does a very nice job with it.

Simon & Garfunkel’s song “Bridge Over Troubled Water” has been covered by more than 50 different musical artists, from Aretha Franklin to Elvis Presley to Willie Nelson. It’s a timeless classic that taps into the universal struggle of feeling down and the comfort of having someone to lift us up. It’s beloved for its soothing melody and cathartic lyrics, and after a year of pandemic challenges, it’s perhaps more poignant now than ever.

A few years a go, American singer-songwriter Yebba Smith shared a solo a capella version of a part of “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” in which she just casually sits and sings it on a bed. It’s an impressive rendition on its own, highlighting Yebba’s soulful, effortless voice.

But British singer Jacob Collier recently added his own layered harmony tracks to it, taking the performance to a whole other level.

Be ready, because PHEW.

If you’re unfamiliar with either of both these singers, here’s a little background.

Yebba is a singer-songwriter from West Memphis, Arkansas who has collaborated with various artists including Chance the Rapper, Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, and Sam Smith. She’s released a few singles of her own over the past few years, and in 2019 won a Grammy alongside PJ Morton for Best Traditional R&B Performance with the song “How Deep Is Your Love.”

“Yebba” is her stage name—a backwards play on her real name, Abbey Smith.

Her debut single, “My Mind” was written and performed shortly before her mom died of suicide in 2016. After that, the lyrics of the song took on a whole new significance. The powerful performance of the piece at SoFar NYC shows off Yebba’s vocal range as well as her emotive style of singing.

YEBBA – My Mind | Sofar NYC

www.youtube.com

Jacob Collier, on the other hand, is a British musician who rose to fame through split-screen self-harmonizing videos he shared online. In 2012, his cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” went viral on YouTube, and Collier was subsequently signed by Quincy Jones’ record label. He has since been nominated for seven Grammy awards and won five of them. He’s the first British artist to win a Grammy for each of his first four albums.

Collier—who has been referred to as “a musical force of nature” can play a wide range of musical instruments and often serves as his own one-man band. But his NPR Tiny Desk Concert with back-up vocals and instrumentalists is a delight. (It gets particularly fun at the 12:30 mark.)

Jacob Collier: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

www.youtube.com

Two impressive musical artists casually pulling together a soul-stirring performance of a much-beloved classic like “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is just the kind of entertainment we need after a year of collective trauma and hardship. Music is healing, creativity is healing, human connection is healing, and all three of those things came together beautifully in this brief video. (Anyone else wishing it didn’t cut off? I don’t think there’s a longer version anywhere, since Yebba’s original solo version wasn’t a complete video either. I think it’s time to demand a full recorded version, please and thank you.)

Yebba pretty much summed up here how we’re all feeling after watching them sing:

You can find more of Yebba’s music here and Jacob Collier’s music here.

There are certain things in the real world that just can be duplicated virtually. No matter how hard we try, a virtual happy hour isn’t as fun as a regular happy hour. It’s difficult to find chemistry on a Zoom date, and virtual dance parties will all be something we make fun of when this pandemic is over.

My heart goes out to all of the students and teachers across the country who have had to make do with virtual learning over the past year. It’s a frustrating thing for all involved, but it’s the best we can do at a time when we have to be apart.

Distance learning can be an effective way for kids to learn, but a mother on Twitter just told the world about a thing called Zoom Detention and nobody’s here for it.

Evidently, schools have created virtual rooms that kids who’ve misbehaved have to log in to be disciplined by an interventionist. Most of the time, kids are sent there for logging off their classes or playing video games when they should be paying attention to their teachers.

Sure it’s important for children to be well-behaved, even in a virtual classroom, but these kids have had a really hard year, and sending them to the Zoom principal’s office feels like a bridge too far.

Ugu Anya, a linguistics professor, went viral on Twitter Tuesday for her tweet thread about her child’s invitation to a Zoom Detention Room and it sparked a lot of opinions.

Why punish someone for not looking at a screen by forcing them to look at another screen?

Other parents chimed in to share their exasperation with distance learning.

This retired teacher had a great way to fix the situation that doesn’t involve virtual punishment.

Some disagreed about how Anya should approach the situation, but both responses seem totally reasonable.

A lot of folks said they should avoid Zoom detention. But doesn’t that send a bad signal to the child? Should a parent tell a child to disobey their teacher?

Let’s not forget that we are in the middle of a deadly pandemic and attending school in some areas is a scary proposition.

While distance learning surely comes with its frustrations a recent study found that most parents (57%) believe that their child’s remote schooling worked better than they expected, and 60% of parents believed their schools prepared their children well for remote learning.

Thank goodness we have the technology in place that allows students to learn safely at a time when it’s dangerous for large groups of children to come together. Imagine what would have happened if we had a pandemic pre-Internet? Would kids just sit at home watching TV all day?

All signs point to an eventual reopening of the country by the summer, let’s hope that means that the schools will be open in the fall.

The Nevers (HBO series streaming on HBO Max) — This Joss Whedon-created show offers an intriguing setup about a group of “orphans” (almost exclusively women) who find themselves “gifted” with supernaturally-powered abilities. Although there’s far too many plot lines (and some plot holes), there’s also a fair amount of butt-kicking, and the atmosphere is killer. The embattled Buffy and Firefly creator officially exited the series last year, but you won’t be able to forget his presence. Whether that hurts or helps the show remains to be seen.

Them (Amazon Prime limited series) — This story’s sure to remind horror fans of Jordan Peele’s Us in more ways than a few, and for good reason. This show promises to explore American-bred terror with an anthologized approach, so the first season is all about the 1950s. Allison Pill’s reliably frightening, and here, she’s terrorizing a Black family, who moves into an all-white LA neighborhood and the welcome committee isn’t there for them, that’s for sure. Soon enough, the horror show begins; and both from a reality-based and a supernatural standpoint, this is pure nightmare fuel.

Exterminate All The Brutes (HBO series streaming on HBO Max) — This four-part documentary series tells a story of survival with a powerful message. Prepare to witness a search for truth and an scrutinization of how history is written, and expect to watch this show while reexamining much of what you thought you knew about European colonialism, American slavery, and Native American genocide. This week, Parts 1 and 2 revisit the U.S.’ legacy as a colonial power, including stories of Christopher Columbus and Trail of Tears, as told from an indigenous perspective.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Disney+ series) — Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes are still doing their buddy action-comedy thing, and last week, Sharon Carter finally arrived to kick ass and sprinkle her newly jaded attitude among the cast of characters. This week, Zemo might be in for a rude awakening after Ayo (of Wakanda) tracked down Bucky. The Flag Smashers are still proving to be confusing villains, and Faux Captain America is hanging out somewhere. We’re past the halfway point now, so things should start to come to (even more of) a head soon.

Thunder Force (Netflix film) — Don’t expect this movie to win any awards because that’s not the point. Instead, prepare for the silliest of moments from Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer as two inept superheroes who fight crime, long after their childhood best-friend days, and together, they learn what it’s like when two ordinary people are suddenly tasked with stopping supervillains. In other words, sit back and embrace the chaos because there’s plenty of it coming your way. The supporting cast includes Bobby Cannavale, Pom Klementieff, and Melissa Leo. Plus, Jason Bateman is onboard, which instantly makes any movie or TV show better

The Oprah Conversation (Friday, Apple TV+) — Eddie Murphy visits with the formidable host to discuss his return to movies and stand-up comedy, as well as his takes on cancel culture and diversity and representation throughout the business.

SNL (Saturday, NBC 11:29 p.m.) — Carey Mulligan hosts with musical guest Kid Cudi.

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (Sunday, NBC 9:00 p.m.) — Jane Levy continues her leading-lady musical turn with her powers glitching in a mysterious way after she visits a museum.

Fear the Walking Dead: Season 6B premiere (Sunday, AMC 9:00 p.m.) — Against all expectations (and the audience’s experience), this zombie-series spinoff transformed itself and surprised the hell out of even die-hard fans of The Walking Dead universe. Can the show continue to sustain its current momentum? The franchise’s fans sure hope so, as other spinoffs warm up in the background.

The Gloaming (Sunday, Starz 8:00 p.m.) — Lily’s life is in jeopardy because of Freddie, and Molly is racing against time.

Shameless (Sunday, Showtime 9:00 p.m.) — Kev and V are making strides to look for a buyer for an Alibi, and Lip finds a new job while Carl finds a new calling. Oh, and Ian and Mickey go furniture shopping, which should be disastrous.

City On A Hill (Sunday, Showtime 9:00 p.m.) — Season 2 of this Kevin Bacon show continues with Decourcy making a house call, and Jackie tracing an informant and using him as a pawn for his own devices.

Gangs Of London (Sunday, AMC 10:15 p.m.) — Fans of the beloved Peaky Blinders should pay attention because this new series makes Peaky seem like a pleasant walk in London’s Hyde Park. Warring gangs and a power vacuum and a city on its knees are only part of the attraction here. The rest is down to character-based writing and a wonderful cast that embodies a decidedly unglamorous take on warring criminal elements, all of which will prove to be addictive for anyone who loves The Sopranos or any of Marty Scorsese’s mob pictures. This week, Sean finds out new secrets about his dad’s death, and Elliot is uncovering truths elsewhere.

Last Week Tonight (Sunday, HBO 10:00 p.m.) — Everyone’s favorite sarcastic and satiric late-night host is here to throw down, and not a moment too soon. Can’t wait to see who he skewers this week.

Here are some more fresh streaming picks:

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (Disney+ series) — Emilio Estevez is back in this new-generation revival of the classic films. Co-starring Lauren Graham and Brady Noon, the Mighty Ducks junior hockey team is now a powerhouse in its division, and it’s brutal in selecting who can make the cut. Estevez is still the Ducks’ original coach, and he’s helping a new team of underdogs after the New Ducks boot a 12-year-old boy.

Made For Love (HBO Max series) — HBO Max recently struck dark-comedy gold with The Flight Attendant, and the WarnerMedia streamer is poised to do so again with Cristin Milioti maneuvering around a premise that’s even more dizzying than that of Palm Springs. Cristin stars as Hazel, and Ray Romano plays her father, who’s attempting to help her flee from a god-awful marriage with a guy (Billy Magnussen) who’s implanted a chip in her brain so that he can track her every move and emotion. It’s such a cynical spin on relationships, and it’s terrifying, all of it, to consider, but heck, this show will suck you into its compelling vortex. Did we mention that dad is a widower with a “synthetic partner”? Oh boy.

John Oliver recently devoted an entire deep-dive segment on Last Week Tonight to pointing out how Tucker Carlson is a conduit for white supremacist talking points, all despite pretending not to know what a supremacist is. Oliver then gave Tucker two new nicknames, including “relentlessly indignant picket fence” and “performatively outraged wedge salad,” which is beside the point but still accurate. On Thursday night, however, Tucker (who has been praised by countless well-known white supremacists, including David Duke) proved that Oliver is once again on-point by endorsing a white supremacist theory (the so-called “replacement theory”) by name:

“I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement,’ if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World. But they become hysterical because that’s what’ happening actually. Let’s just say it. That’s true.”

Tucker continued while suggesting that he (as a white man) is being “disenfranchised” by Democrats’ efforts to welcome a flood of immigrant voters:

“If you change the population, you dilute the political power of the people who live there. So every time they import a new voter, I become disenfranchised as a current voter… everyone wants to make a racial issue out of it. Oh, you know, the white replacement theory?”

The “replacement theory” is a far-right, white supremacist theory that suggests that the white race is being slowly replaced by other races through migration and resulting birthrates. Tucker’s on-air endorsement has been noticed.

As Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on Twitter, “‘[R]eplacement theory’ is a white supremacist tenet that the white race is in danger by a rising tide of non-whites. It is antisemitic, racist and toxic. It has informed the ideology of mass shooters in El Paso, Christchurch and Pittsburgh.” He then added, “Tucker must go.”

Greenblatt was joined by others on social media, who are tired of Carlson’s shtick going unmoderated:

The on-air retort to this should be interesting, at least.